Meta
Company typePrivate
Founded2012 (2012)
FounderMeron Gribetz, CEO
DefunctJanuary 2019 (2019-01)
FateInsolvency
SuccessorMeta View (now Campfire)
Key people
John Werner
ProductsAugmented reality products
Websitemetavision.com

Meta was a company that designed augmented reality products. The company was founded by Meron Gribetz in 2012,[1][2] based on the "Extramissive spatial imaging digital eye glass" technology invented by Gribetz and Mann[3] originally filed with the US Patent and Trademark office Jan 3, 2013.[4]

The company furloughed two-thirds of its approximately 100 employees in September 2018.[5] In 2019, the company declared itself insolvent after its primary lender foreclosed and sold all of the company's assets.[6]

Products

The company's products included the Meta 1 and Meta 2 Developer Kits, headsets by which users could view and manipulate holographic images.[7]

History

Meta was founded by Meron Gribetz while he was a student at Columbia University.[8][2] In 2013, Meta launched a crowd-funded Kickstarter campaign that raised $194,444.[9] Also in 2013, Meta was accepted into the Y Combinator's seed accelerator program.[10][11] Steve Mann became the company's chief scientist and Steven Feiner became an adviser.[12][13]

In 2014, founder Gribetz was awarded the "30 Under 30 award" in the technology category by Forbes[14][15] and Meta won best heads-up display award for the Meta Pro at the Consumer Electronics Show.[16][17] Meta presented the Meta 1 Developer Kit with a live medical demo at 2014's TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco.[18]

In September 2014, Meta began to ship its Meta 1 Developer Kit.[19][20]

In 2015, Meta received $23 million in Series-A funding from Horizons Ventures, Tim Draper, BOE Optoelectronics, Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian of Y Combinator, Danhua Capital, Commodore Partners, and Vegas Tech Fund.[21][22]

In 2016, Meta unveiled its second-generation product at a TED conference.[23][24][25] The company received another $50M in venture-capital funds from Lenovo, Tencent, Banyan Capital, Comcast Ventures, and GQY.[26]

In March 2016, it announced the launch of the Meta 2 at the $949 to compete with the Microsoft HoloLens, which retailed for $3000. However, the Meta 2 would be a tethered and would require an external PC whereas the Hololens was a standalone product.[27]

In 2018, Meta furloughed two-thirds of its one hundred employees after it failed to secure another round of venture capital funding.[5] In January 2019, Meta declared itself insolvent after its primary lender foreclosed and sold all the company's assets.[6]

In May 2019, a company called Meta View announced it had acquired the intellectual property assets of Meta,[28] with Jay Wright, who was previously president and general manager of Qualcomm's augmented reality division, Vuforia,[29] chosen as CEO.[28] In July 2021, the company announced a new name, Campfire, and its plans to release a 3D collaboration system for design and engineering later that year.[30]

See also

References

  1. ^ "META COMPANY :: Delaware (US) :: OpenCorporates".
  2. ^ a b Farber, Dan (2013-09-09). "Meta's Meron Gribetz and the rise of the natural machine". CNET. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  3. ^ US Patent 9,720,505, "Extramissive spatial imaging digital eye glass...", Gribetz; Meron (New York, NY), Mann; W. Steve G. (Toronto, CA), filed January 3rd, 2014.
  4. ^ US Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Application 61/748,468, Jan 3, 2013
  5. ^ a b Wang, Selina (September 9, 2018). "Trade War Is Hurting Silicon Valley Augmented Reality Startup". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  6. ^ a b Strange, Adario (January 11, 2019) AR Startup Meta Company Shuts Down Amid Asset Foreclosure Sale, Patent Fight, & Executive Departures Next Reality News. (Retrieved January 12, 2019.)
  7. ^ Angley, Natalie (2013-10-31). "Glasses to make you a real-life Tony Stark". CNN. Retrieved 2014-11-14.
  8. ^ Das, Sumi (2013-10-30). "Meta's spaceglasses promise mobile augmented reality". CNET. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  9. ^ "Kickstarter: The Most Advanced Augmented Reality Glasses". Kickstarter. 2013-05-17. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  10. ^ Crook, Jordan (2013-08-20). "Y Combinator Summer 2013 Demo Day, Batch 2: Meet Meta, Lob, Amulyte, Weilos And More". TECHCRUNCH. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  11. ^ Farber, Dan (2013-05-17). "Meta glasses bring 3D and your hands into the picture". CNET. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  12. ^ Biggs, John (2013-05-21). "Meta, The World's First Entry-Level AR Glasses, Hires The Father Of Wearable Computing As Chief Scientist". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  13. ^ Cava, Marco (2013-07-30). "Change Agents: Seeing world through Meta's 3-D glasses". USATODAY. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
  14. ^ "2014 30 Under 30: Technology". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  15. ^ Guglielmo, Connie (2014-01-06). "30 Under 30: Meet Technology's Smartest, Youngest And Most Daring Innovators". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  16. ^ "Best of CES 2014". Tom's Guide. 2014-06-09. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  17. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (2014-01-12). "The Best of CES 2014". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  18. ^ "Treating Virtual Patients with Meta and SimX". TechCrunch. 2014-09-09. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  19. ^ Donovan, Jay (2014-09-18). "Meta 1 Augmented Reality Glasses Are Dragging Us Into A VR Future". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  20. ^ Levy, Karyne (2014-09-18). "The World Is One Step Closer To Being Like An 'Iron Man' Movie". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  21. ^ Chapman, Lizette (2015-01-28). "Augmented-Reality Headset Maker Meta Secures $23 Million". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  22. ^ Brewster, Signe (2015-01-28). "Meta raises $23M Series A to refine its augmented reality glasses". Gigaom. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  23. ^ Wakefield, Jane (2016-02-17). "TED 2016: Meta augmented reality headset demoed at TED". BBC. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  24. ^ Helft, Miguel (2016-02-17). "New Augmented Reality Startup Meta Dazzles TED Crowd". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  25. ^ Matney, Lucas (2016-03-02). "Hands-on with the $949 mind-bending Meta 2 augmented reality headset". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  26. ^ "AR startup Meta raises $50M at around $300M valuation, eyes up China". Techcrunch.
  27. ^ Helft, Miguel (2016-03-02). "Startup Meta Unveils $949 Augmented Reality Headset To Rival HoloLens". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  28. ^ a b Roettgers, Janko (2019-05-28). "The New Owner of Meta's Assets Comes Out of Stealth, Announces CEO Appointment". Variety. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  29. ^ Marvin, Rob. "CES: Looking Through Augmented Reality Glasses at Our Enterprise Future". PCMAG. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  30. ^ Jon Peddie (2021-07-05). "Collaborating around the Campfire with augmented reality". GraphicSpeak. Retrieved 2021-10-30.

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